Penelope's Ankle
by atkesst
Summary: "Lizzie misplaced her earbuds somewhere around here and until I find them, you can't be in my bedroom to distract me!" She stood up and kept pushing mess on the floor around. "So you mean after you find them, I can-" "Or ever! You can't come in here ever!"


** feuenfeu** **wrote half of the plot for this and a couple of the lines were taken directly from her. If you like Legacies fan edits, check out her Instagram. **

Penelope found herself at the bottom of the stairs after tumbling down them with a crash. She had been wearing particularly high heeled shoes that day so when the pointed heel missed the step on her way up to her dorm, she rolled backward down the hard steps, leaving her shoulder twisted, ankle sprained, and ego bruised. Thankfully, no one but Pedro, the young witch who happened to be passing through, had seen the unfortunate accident. It was a good thing; watching the girl who does everything on purpose crying at the bottom of the steps wasn't the best way to keep the school from seeing her as anything short of invulnerable.

-o-o-o-o-o-

A week after Penelope injured herself, she walked through the hallways in sneakers and a wrap on her left ankle. She was considerably, and uncomfortably, shorter than usual but high heels only made the pain worse. To compensate for her lack of glamour in the shoe department, the rest of her look was perfect; from her freshly ironed plaid skirt to the long red ribbon tied neatly around her neck. The striped white and black ribbon matched her outfit better but it'd been missing for months now.

As she walked down the hallway back to her dorm, she spotted a door left slightly ajar. Though all of these doors looked the same, Penelope would always recognize the entrance to the Saltzman twins' dorm. She was in the mood to see Josie and with any luck, her evil twin would be out complaining to their father or harassing some guy.

Sure enough, when Penelope peeked inside, the room was only occupied by Josie, who was facing away from the door and sorting through a sea of books, clothes, and other things that Penelope couldn't name. All of the drawers and boxes in the room were wide open from Josie's relentless searching.

Hoping to possibly help her in her quest to find, well, something, Penelope entered the room. But as she stepped through the doorway, she accidentally placed her foot in the neck of a sweater laying on the ground. Her uninjured foot stepped on the sleeve and Penelope fell forward. However, she didn't hit the floor like she had the week before. When she gasped in surprise, Josie had turned around and just barely got her arms up before her ex landed on her, pinning her to the floor. On the plus side, they didn't land on the scissors that Josie's head landed only inches away from.

"Penelope! What the hell?" Josie yelled, squirming underneath her. She too was wearing a ribbon that somehow interlaced itself with the one Penelope wore. The sweater that had tripped Penelope had wrapped itself around Josie's legs. She reached between them and started to untangle their ribbons. "You fell on me!" she accused her.

"You fell for me," Penelope jabbed, trying to lighten the mood. Josie rolled her eyes and continued to pull at the knots.

"Really, Pen? A pickup line? Now?" Josie seemed unaware that their feet were also bound together and Penelope didn't feel like reminding her; she seemed upset enough.

"You can always count on me for those," Penelope assured her. The fact that they accidentally coordinated outfits made telling the matching red ribbons apart almost impossible. When she assumed that the ribbons were successfully untied, she put a hand on either side of Josie's head and pushed herself up off from off of her. They were, in fact, not untied and tightened as soon as she pulled away, constricting around both of their necks. _You take my breath away, _popped into Penelope's head. She'd say it if she could actually breathe.

"God! Penelope!" Josie choked out, grabbing the scissors on the floor near her head and, without hesitation, clipped the red thread between them.

"You know, I know you like being choke-"

Josie's eyes widened and she glanced at the open door to the hallway where the occasional student passed through. Her cheeks were pink as she stood up, thoroughly embarrassed. Penelope tried to stand up as well and remind her of the sweater around their feet that they hadn't taken the time to remove yet but she was too late; Josie fell backward onto Lizzie's bed, pulling Penelope onto her yet again. "I swear! I can't get rid of you!" she screamed in frustration, bringing both of their feet to her so that she could grab the sweater. "Why do you continue to linger around me anyway? You broke up with me, in case you needed reminding."

With her feet on Josie's lap, Penelope shrugged. "I have nothing better to do than 'linger around'." She winced as Josie twisted her foot slightly while finally getting their feet free. "You really should've locked the door. You know, seventy-five percent of attacks come from behind?" She was talking quickly to mask the pain.

Josie stared at her. "Is that supposed to be a threat or something?"

"No, just a fun fact."

She closed her eyes for a couple of seconds, trying to resist shoving her out of her room right then. "Lizzie misplaced her earbuds somewhere around here and until I find them, you can't be in my bedroom to distract me!" She stood up and kept pushing mess on the floor around.

"So you mean after you find them, I can-"

"Or ever! You can't come in here ever!" she added quickly, blushing even worse than she had previously. Penelope chuckled at her flustered attempts to keep her away.

"I didn't mean to fall on you," Penelope apologized, bending down to help her search. "It's just because of this." She gestured to the wrap-around her left foot.

Josie's features softened out of pity. "What happened to you?"

"I slipped down the-" _Falling down the stairs isn't exactly something to brag about, _Penelope thought. "I fell off the docks." She wanted to slap herself as soon as the words came out of her mouth. That didn't sound great either.

"I'm sorry."

"Don't worry about it." Penelope was still cringing at herself for her poor choice of a lie. They sorted through the chaos of things in silence and Josie didn't comment again on Penelope's presence. Penelope knew that finding the earbuds would only benefit Lizzie, but she wasn't going to turn down an opportunity to spend time with Josie.

Looking at a hoodie that Josie had tossed on the ground during her search, Penelope felt a box in the front pocket. "Is this it?" she asked.

"Not sure," Josie responded, glancing curiously at it. "Check inside."

Penelope pulled the lid off to reveal a black and white striped ribbon folded up inside. "Hey, isn't this mine? I thought I lost it," she mumbled. Josie, blushing even harder than she had been before, snatched the box out of her hand so fast that she could've been mistaken for a vampire.

"No, no. It's definitely… Lizzie's. Yeah." She skipped over to her bed and shoved the box underneath her pillow.

Penelope raised an eyebrow at her. "If you say so." After a couple of minutes, she stood up and walked to the other side of the room. "I'm going to check the closet, okay, Jo?" She walked inside to check the shelves.

"Sure," Josie said, absentmindedly. "Just don't close the door all the way. It swings shut easily and then sometimes it doesn't open- Pen?" The door had already shut. "God, Penelope, what'd I say!?"

"Let me out!" Penelope yelled, tugging on the jammed door.

Josie sighed loudly and started siphoning the wall. "Just wait. I'll open the door for you. _Dissera Por-"_

"Josie!" came a voice from the door. Josie, startled, stopped her spell.

"Oh, hey, Lizzie!" she said cheerfully, standing in front of the closet.

"Where are my earbuds? You said you'd find them. And why is our room literally a dump?"

"I'm working on it," she mumbled. "But don't check the closet. I've already looked there."

Penelope rolled her eyes and continued searching through the shelves as quietly as she could. Then, she spotted another tiny box on the shelf above her. She stood on her tip-toes to grab them but putting pressure on her sprained ankle only made it worse. Using a spell wasn't an option since the dictionary resting on it would make noise if it was moved. The 5'3" crippled witch slouched against the door, waiting for Lizzie to exit the room so that she could leave this prison of a closet. She pressed her ear against the door to listen to the twins' banter.

"I want to listen to music," Lizzie said, laughing passive-aggressively. "How hard is it to find a pair of earbuds?" _Find them yourself, _Penelope thought, her eye twitching.

"Sorry, Lizzie. I probably lost them myself." Josie's voice was full of remorse and Penelope wanted to scream at her. She was taking the blame like always.

MG could be heard from the hallway, singing quietly to some music they couldn't hear. "Lizzie!" Josie suddenly said. "Maybe MG took them? He's wearing earbuds."

"You're right," Lizzie agreed. "I'm gonna kill him if he did." She stomped out of the room.

"_Imperium monstrum!" _Josie shouted a boundary spell at the door as soon as Lizzie left. "That should keep her out for a bit. Penelope, we need to get you out of here."

"_Dissera portus,_" Penelope muttered, opening the door herself. "The earbuds are up there." She pointed to the shelf.

"Thanks." Josie, who had about four inches on her ex grabbed them easily. "Now, please leave." The boxes that had been resting on the door came crashing down from how fast the spell had opened it. One box opened and a blue sparkly dress fell on Penelope's head. It was covered in sequins above the waist and had a flowy skirt below.

"What is this?" she asked, lifting it.

Josie, instead of snatching it from her as she had with the box earlier, loudly told her, "Pen, please put it back in the box. It's really important to m- Lizzie and she'll get mad."

Penelope did as she was told and tossed the dress back in the box. "What's so special about it?"

Josie looked at her, her eyes full of anger. "You don't have the right to talk to me about that." She sunk to the floor and carefully folded the dress before placing it in the box neatly.

Caught off guard by Josie's sudden outburst, Penelope tried to reason with her. "Jo, it's just a dress."

"It's not just a-!" She took a deep breath. "This isn't important. We have to get you out of the room before Lizzie gets back." She started siphoning the spell from the door. "Okay, the story is that you just came here to butt into my business once again and I just found the earbuds so you'll walk out of this dorm as if nothing happened. Got it?"

"Aw, you ashamed to have me found in your bedroom? Anyway, that is pretty much why I came here. It's actually kind of flattering to know this was..." She smirked at her as she walked toward the door. "More." She took Lizzie's hairbrush off of the nightstand and speed-fixed her hair. Glancing in the mirror, she decided she was presentable enough to reveal herself to Lizzie. Her has was still frizzy from her time with the sweaters and other static-y clothes in the closet.

Josie shook her head in exhaustion and opened the door to let her twin inside. "Hi, again."

"Ugh, MG said he didn't take them. I threatened to-"

"No, no, no, they were here all along." Josie handed her the box. "See?"

Lizzie smiled and took the earbuds back but then looked past Josie to see Penelope with her fluffed up hair. "Why is _she_ here? And what have you two been doing?" she asked in disgust.

"Nothing! She's just leaving!" Penelope waved at Lizzie as Josie shoved her out the door. Josie grabbed something from on the dresser and went outside with her.

"You know," Penelope started, grinning flirtily at Josie. "It did-"

"Do I know what?" she snapped back, lighting the sage she'd grabbed on fire to keep anyone from hearing their conversation. Penelope hesitated to respond with a snarky comment. "I'm sick of this, Penelope. No more spontaneous visits to my dorm room. Like ever. You can't just break up with me and waltz around me in my life like we weren't-" she paused, "-like we weren't ever something," her voice hitched and her eyes teared up. "Here's your ribbon," she whispered, placing the tangled ball of ribbon she'd cut off of their necks earlier. Frayed red thread was sticking out in every direction. She stepped away from Penelope and walked back to her dorm without looking back.

Penelope sighed and headed back to her room, not wanting to deal with Lizzie if she tried to insult her after Josie got inside. But the hurt she heard in Josie's voice made Penelope realize that she needed to apologize. She turned around so fast that she felt her ankle made another strange noise. "Jojo, I'm so sorry," she called down the hall but the door had already closed. The burnt sage's effects were already wearing off but it still drowned out her words.

"What did she-who-must-not-be-named want now?" she heard Lizzie say from inside the dorm. Penelope took off with the ribbons in her fist before she could have her heart broken by whatever Josie was going to say about her.

**If you enjoyed it, please leave me a comment! I might write more Posie fluff in the future but I'd like to know what you think of this first! My Instagram is at_kesst and I have Legacies edits there too. **

**For those who are still waiting for **_**It Isn't Fate**_**, I WILL be continuing that! My next chapter won't be super long but I will try to update more often! I'm so sorry for the two-month hiatus, I've just been busy. **


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